Posts Tagged ‘Animalia’

Mammals is the moniker of Sydney all rounder Guy Brown, who will be playing a string of shows including a Bigsound appearance in celebration of the release of his forthcoming debut EP Animalia, a chilled out, lusciously layered oceanic triumph of production. He also just dropped a sweet new collaboration with Goldroom.

We caught up with Guy for a chat about the EP, and to heard his Donald Duck impression

Just so we’re clear from the get go who exactly is Mammals? Is it still just you or have you picked a couple of band members along the way?

Well I write all the music but we play live with a band, we’ve got guitar, vocals bass and drums. It’s usually the same crew, sometimes when the guys are away we grab someone else but at the moment it’s pretty solid.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a listen to the EP, I feel like lyrically you’ve taken it to another level do you think that’s fair to say?

Yeah some of the themes are pretty close to me so I was pretty stoked about writing them, hopefully it turns out well and gets a good reception.

Could you describe the sound to our readers who haven’t had the privilege yet?

Ah, whenever people ask us we say the same thing, super chilled vibey soup. I don’t know why but it seems to work.

An article in Vulture magazine said that you guys were set to explode in the next 12 months, the EP sounds pretty Triple J friendly do you feel like a big fame explosion is on the cards soon?

I don’t know, I just want to play more gigs and write music with other guys. So hopefully if it’s well received I can just keep doing that because I love music so much, and all I want to do is be able to play it for other people. If they like it then that’s awesome.

You’ve been announced on the Bigsound lineup which is kind of Australia’s SXSW in a way, why do you think it’s so important in Australia’s music industry?

Yeah I think it’s just a great opportunity to go up there, get the name out there and do some networking as well as playing and watching awesome gigs.

And are you excited about the gig?

Yeah we’re stoked about it I’ve got a couple of mates who are playing up there as well so I’m looking forward to going up there and partying.

Which mates?

Nick, the lead singer from Deep Sea Arcade, I work with him in a recording studio in Sydney he’s a legend. And if I can get up a day earlier I’ll definitely check out Seekae. And Fractures too, we played a gig with them last week great dudes.

That gig sold out didn’t it? How did it go?

Yeah it did luckily, I think we played pretty well. It was the first time we played with the regular dudes in a while. One of them got back from America the night before and we hadn’t jammed in over a month so we were a bit nervous but it went really well.

In the past few years you’ve supported a few big names, Of Monsters & Men, The 1975, does that help get you ready for a few headlining shows?

Yeah it’s such a cool experience to be able to do it, but it can be really stressful at times. That 1975 gig we got offered like a week before the shows and two of my band members were away so we had to find a drummer and a bass player in time and teach them the songs. But that’s all part of the experience, it keeps you on your toes and hopefully we are getting slicker.

The 1975 were awesome dudes too, it was great to have a couple of beers with them. But when you get to play those gigs you get to experience such a big crowd and feel those vibes and it just makes you hungrier.

You’re all about the vibes aren’t you.

Haha definitely, that 1975 gig was mental though there were girls lining up for it at 6.30am, and it was all ages, these girls just wanted to be down the front so bad. They were just losing there shit and we got the dregs of them so we got a bit more of an audience. But when we came on at 8 (p.m) the Enmore was packed. And people were just losing there shit, falling over and getting dragged out crying.

Tell me something unexpected about you that not many people would know?

Oh haha okay, making me think on my feet here. I used to do a whole bunch of acting when I was really little, I did heaps of stuff with Opera Australia. I was in The Sound of Music and Oliver and did a whole bunch of T.V ads too. Like the original Banana ad, you know that Banananana nah nah naaaah ad?

But I was so thankful that at my 21st it was an outdoor thing so they couldn’t play the videos.

But probably the best thing is that I can speak Donald duck like a boss.

(I can confirm that indeed his Donald duck impression, is in fact boss)

What’s the best thing about a live Mammals show?

For me or you? For me probably getting heaps maggot.

Does that happen at every Mammals show?

Nah we try to be good, when its an important gig we don’t drink too much.

What’s the worst you’ve ever been at a gig?

Oh man okay, I can’t tell you where it is but I’ll tell you what happened. We were playing a couple of shows somewhere and just grabbed this one gig booking the night before supporting Owl Eyes, and we had to hire drums and shit it was just a horrible mess. Then we got there and there was pretty much nobody there besides a few of my friends that came down from Sydney. So we thought lets just get fucking wasted, so we did, and it ended up with myself doing a guitar solo while walking underneath my guitarists legs and for the final song my pants came down. And so the promoter dude said ‘you’ll regret this gig for the rest of your lives and you’ll never play in this town again.’ But he was wrong I fucking loved it, it was amazing.

And what’s the best part of the live show for me the fan?

Probably my pants around my ankles, haha no people seem to froth out on the shaker, and maybe some sweet dance moves.